Looks like the Republicans are getting ready for a knock-down, drag out presidential convention in Cleveland, Ohio this summer.

Trump is the designated people’s nominee, while behind-the-scenes the establishment is scrambling to offer up its own candidate. It might be that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with respect to the sporadic bullying which have broken out at Trump rallies. His cult following is ready to take it to the mat with anyone who gets in the way of their idol, as he takes over the White House…Trump’s own D.C. Miralago.

With Mitch McConnell’s refusal to consider the President’s Supreme Court nominee today, it is apparent that Trump’s followers are spot on in thinking that Washington is broken. As long as established Republicans continue to face off against anyone with whom they disagree, nothing of worth is accomplished. Their own Speaker of the House Boehner threw up his hands in resignation, and quit the political scene altogether. It’s not that they can’t get along with Democrats, Washington Republicans can’t even get along with their Tea Party branch of conservatives. Time and again Trump has said that Ted Cruz is unable to work with his fellow congressmen and women.

The battle that ensued within the confines of Capitol Hill in D.C. has erupted onto the streets of small town USA. It was long overdue. The Tea Party, backed by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, was going to eventually overwhelm the Republican establishment. It was just waiting for the right man in the form of a billionaire whose agenda paralleled theirs in returning America to…a patriarchal, isolationist society, favoring white men.

If Trump is denied the presidency by his Party’s hierarchy, he threatens anarchy on the part of his followers. So it seems the Republicans have opened their own Pandora’s Box and are unable to contain the tornado it unleashed. Like a Jack-in-the-box, Trump keeps bobbing up and down avoiding the poisoned arrows hurtling his way. As a boomerang returns from whence it came, Republicans never figured on having opportunist Trump bum a free ride to the highest office in the land and the most powerful position in the world…at their expense. All the while…

Since President Obama took office it was evident that Right Wing extremists were never going to accept him. First, he was black; second, he had a Muslim name. The third strike was when he refused to bend to their will and give in to the “good ole’ boys,” white way of doing things. In Donald Trump, they’re back in their comfort zone. The man’s white. He’s got a normal, Christian name, and he’s golden with the “good ole’ boys.”

Obama has had an uphill climb from beginning to end. Nothing good that he has tried to effect lasts longer than a few days in the media spotlight, and even less in the public’s memory. The President saved us from an economic recession that could have backed us into another Great Depression, or worse. He enacted health insurance for millions unable to afford it. Under his orders, Osama bin Laden was killed. Gays and Lesbians were elevated to respectability under Obama’s administration. And not least of all, black families in the example of the First Family received a tremendous boost in the eyes of the nation and the world. A lasting impression, unlike the TV version embodied in the Huxtables which is unraveling with the diminishing reputation of Bill Cosby. While the President has not been able to overwhelm the NRA’s stronghold on Congress, he has taken what steps he could to stop certain guns from getting into the wrong hands.

Where most presidents occupying the White House are scrutinized from time to time, President Obama has had to endure the overbearing presence of a magnifying glass the likes of the Hubbell Space Telescope. He can’t take a step without Right Wing extremists already criticizing him for mis-stepping. In their eyes, Obama was always going to fail.

Like other presidents before him, Abraham Lincoln included, President Obama was not going to be all things to all people. With Right Wing extremists, he was never, ever going to make the grade. Ever. The fact that he won a second term is a credit to the man, and to all right-thinking people in America. The fact that he has continued to do what good he can to improve the lives of his countrymen is a testament to his moral compass and personal strength. He has not been deterred or derailed by any blockade, real or imagined, created by extremists. Like the birther movement, which continues to have a life of its own…its tentacles reaching out in search of prey.

If Right Wing extremists get their way, Trump will foul mouth his way through the hallowed halls of our forefathers. I for one will miss the dignity and class with which President Obama has conducted himself. In trying times, and there have been many, he has not publicly lashed out with verbal abuse.He may not have had the gift for negotiating the deal, but he did the best he could while remaining true to himself. Trump, by comparison, intentionally demeans any and all who stand in his path, remaining true to his essence…a bully without regrets.

When he leaves office, I will breathe a sign of relief…for the man who has had to endure so much, personally. And I will be happy for the life the First Family can finally enjoy…

The thought that Democrats are voting for Trump so that he’ll get elected, only to be trounced by Hillary Clintonin the general election is as foolhardy, I think, as gambling on…roosters…or pit bulls….or leaping frogs. I know my analogy may raise a few eyebrows and incur a few chuckles, but that’s how disbelieving I am that folks would gamble on something as important as voting for the most powerful leader in the world. Taking the most precious privilege we have as American citizens and tossing it up in the air to have it fall where it may…is as ludicrous to me as purposefully voting for Trump. Makes me wonder if these supposed, well-meaning Democrats are merely attempting to camouflage their desire to actually have the candidate win.

Democrats for Trump.

Sounds like an oxymoron. It’s been done before, but this time, with this candidate, I just can’t swallow the idea.

I guess it just raises the bar, yet again, for female candidate Clinton to have to roll up her sleeves and prepare for the mother-of-all slug fests with the king of mud slinging. How low will he go? That’ll be the million dollar question, or should I say Trump’s $10 billion dollar question. The man has no manners, no filter, no morals. Although he makes up for it with the biggest ego ever to go viral.

Hopefully, if the presidential match does come down to the…lady and the beast…Americans will be listening for the message and not let the messenger get carried away posting his own selfies to instagram and twitter.

This is not a reality TV show. Too many lives are at stake to gamble on who’ll win and who’ll place. Trump doesn’t play to place. He’s going to call in all his favors to make sure he carries the Oval Office. His ego is on the line.

Going forward, we all have to live with the FrankenTrump created by the Republicans…establishment and fanatics alike. What we don’t need is…

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen my daughter perform…probably 4 to 5 years. Memory-wrapped images are all that remain, and they get fuzzier as time passes. So I’m very grateful for Youtube. It’s captured the following contemporary piece in which my daughter was the featured soloist. She danced with Nashville Ballet at the time. I only wish it had shown the actual performance, in which she wore a white, romantic tutu which made her look like an angel. Although I’m not complaining; I’ll take what I can get.

This piece was choreographed by Sarah Slipper, founder and artistic director of Northwest Dance Project in Oregon. My daughter had danced with the company for a couple of summers. It’s performances are cutting-edge, thanks to the amazing talent of Sarah and other choreographers she hand picks to join her in producing a show.

Artists…dancers among them…reflect the beauty of the human spirit. If only we would allow…

Wow! Republicans are running away from themselves. Trump and his followers are turning on the “establishment,” and the “establishment” can’t distance themselves fast enough…albeit a little late…from their presidential front runner.

Perhaps the Republican “establishment” have only themselves to blame for being done in by rogue candidate Trump. Former House Speaker, Bill Boehner, and current Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, could not control the right-wing extremists in Congress. As a result these mostly junior congressmen were able to unhinge the proverbial Pandora’s Box. And what did they find inside? Donald Trump!

Even Ted Cruz, the Tea Party’s darling, could not imagine anyone wresting the Oval Office away from him, least of all Trump, the darling of Wall Street investors. Evidently, Tea Partiers and others, among them White Supremacists, have combined forces to carry Trump all the way to the White House. They see him as the man who gets them what they want, once he’s ensconced in Washington. If, and that’s a big IF, they succeed in crowning Trump president, the Republican “establishment” will have a bigger fight on their hands than they did with President Obama or that they would even get from Hillary Clinton. Trump will steamroll any opposition to his agenda. Diplomacy is not his style, and negotiation is tolerable to a point. And as he has demonstrated time and again, Trump has a low threshold for opposition. He escalates to the “boiling point” pretty quickly.

“I’m going to get along great with Congress. Paul Ryan, I don’t know him well, but I’m sure I’m going to get along great with him,” the front-runner for his party’s nomination said during his Super Tuesday speech. “And if I don’t, he’s going to have to pay a big price.”

(Ben Kamisar…The Hill, online)

Showing himself to be a man who talks out of both sides of his mouth…while Trump was kind of disavowing David Duke and the KKK…a known racist leaves no doubt as to Trump’s campaign reaching out to white supremacists.

Edwards talked to the real estate mogul’s eldest son and campaign surrogate, Donald Trump, Jr., last Saturday for his “pro-white” radio show, “The Political Cesspool.” Previous guests on the show have included Neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and Ku Klux Klan leaders.

Edwards heralded the 20-minute interview in a blog post flagged by Little Green Footballs, that boasted about his access inside a Trump rally in Memphis, Tennessee, last Saturday, where Edwards was broadcasting his show live. He said Trump’s campaign gave Edwards and his co-hosts full press credentials and “VIP” parking near the event.

Edwards said he and his co-hosts have attended three different Trump rallies in recent months: One in Illinois, one in Arkansas, and the rally in Memphis. With press credentials from Trump, the white supremacists feel “every bit as legit” as members of the traditional media, he added.

A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign did not respond to questions late Tuesday about how Edwards was credentialed, or why Donald Trump Jr. gave an interview to a white supremacist talk show.

The question is…will the Republican “establishment” bend to the will of the people for whom Trump stands? Including…